LyrArc Article Gist
French president Macron calls the leadership of G20 by his "dear friend" Mr. Modi of India a good step to tackle global issues of climate change, wars, and food insecurity.

LyrArc Article Gist
Fitch Ratings drops US top credit rating for "erosion of governance." This happens as Mr. Trump runs for the 2024 election after a series of indictments for election interference.

LyrArc Article Gist
Experts say the election of Manuel Lopez Obrador as president of Mexico in June 2018 makes it easier to renegotiate the NAFTA treaty because Mr. Obrador's centre left positions to improve factory conditions and with it factory wages in Mexico, align better with Mr. Trump's goal of raising labor standards in Mexico. Robert Lightnizer, U.S. Trade Representative who leads the U.S. in talks wants to see 40% of the content of auto vehicles that trade duty free within the North American trading bloc of Mexico, Canada and the U.S. to be made at a particular wage level. The wage level the U.S. discussed is $16 an hour. The wage in Mexico is about $8 an hour on average in 2017, with parts plants at $4 an hour, according to the Centre fro Automotive Research. Mr. Obrador is more likely to favor the higher wages for Mexican workers because of his close relationship with the unions in Mexico. Mr. Obrador takes office Dec. 1, 2019, yet a leading member of Mr. Obrador's team will now join in the negotiations as soon as Mr. Obrador is declared president elect by end of June.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Peter Funt points to the time before the internet when daily papers were delivered and radio carried the news between music, and it was hard not have it rub off while hearing the radio or glancing at the sports pages. This rub-off effect meant that even by casual listening or accidentally people got the news. Before cable television the news came from nightly and evening general interest news broadcasts. People usually caught the major news at dinner time or before bedtime as most entertainment broadcasting paused for news broadcasts. By contrast in today's environment news is pulled on the internet home page only from the sources and topics one has selected, or watching one of the 24 cable channels that are essentially covering a liberal or conservative agenda, leaving people less informed about current events except in ways that reinforce one's opinions or biases. Others get their news from tweets, or social media. Funt call this a complete inversion of the traditional process of getting news- where the traditional process was to combine what people wanted to see and ought to see, the new process was to give what people wanted to see. Add to this competitive pressures and budget cuts, and news was shifting by design and intent to what people wanted or were likely to click on frequently, even on sites like BBC News with proliferation of trivia. The net result- there is too much which poses as "news" but is not news such as trivia, less coverage of news, and as the title of this article suggests, too much media and too little general news to shed light on events that affect our daily lives. Funt was writing in 2009, when Google News and Facebook News Feed were just getting started. By 2016, this inversion was causing serious alarm because of the way misinformation was becoming prevalent. This article reminds one that this was not always the case, this is something that has developed only in the last couple of years- that it is not a constructive development, and which we now realize can have a disruptive effect on democracy through spread of misinformation. Funt cites Scripps News slogan- "Give light and the people will find their own way," - that there is a role for traditional general news in our daily lives which informs and lets us form our own opinions afterwards,  that the social media news feeds on the internet run by algorithms or 24 hour cable news channels run for conservative or liberal agendas is not a subsitutute,  that most of us can use the help of good editors, and good broadcasters.       ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Israel's Benny Gantz leader of the Blue and White party leading in seats in parliament with 33 seats to Likud's 31 seats, and his centre left coalition having 57 seats to Likud coalition's 55 seats, has rejected a call for a unity government with Likud bloc. Under such an arrangement Mr. Lieberman's party with 9 seats would also join the coalition. Mr. Lieberman pulled out of a coalition with Likud because of his opposition to ultra orthodox parties leading to this election in Israel in 2019. Mr. Netanyahu's rise in politics with Likud came with his close relationship with Lieberman. With this coming apart Israel is looking to the future with the emergence of new governing parties to replace the old politics and governance.

LyrArc Article Gist
France sees a surge in bookings for vaccination after president Macron announces that vaccination pass will be required to go out to eat or drink, go to a shopping center, or to take a long distance train. Macron said "The health pass is not obligatory right away, but we are going to extend the health pass to the maximum to encourage as many of you as possible to get yourselves vaccinated."

LyrArc Article Gist
I don't think it is progressive to let people be assaulted on subways or on streets , or let people sleep in tents, say moderate Democrats calling for tough action. San Francisco is taking strong action and reversing earlier positions on crime. New York Governor Hochul is bringing in the National Guard into the subways to make certain people are safe in strong action against all forms of crime. She is personally invested in this effort.

LyrArc Article Gist
No man steps into the same river twice, says Jack Shafer in Politico. Mr. Trump is not the same person, and Twitter under Musk is not the same site. Much has changed since 2016. Many of the debates of 2016 are a thing of the past, as the nation has learned from that period and is moving ahead in a new direction under the Biden economic plan- for an economy that works for working people and families. This is critical for the task of building an America that reduces the huge disparities in America that have built up after decades of outshoring factories and jobs. The task that Mr. Biden has taken up with federal investment with business in key industries, cost of living actions, building a modern infrastructure for the US, and efforts to raise income and wages of workers and their families. 

LyrArc Article Gist
What is 2 metres apart social distancing? This BBC video shows how. It is as if you are holding a broom. Thats how far you should be from someone else. In buses or transport no one in front or back of you. In conference rooms a similar distance. In parks outside 2 benches long distance. Be sure to see this video as it is critical in the fight against coronavirus. Most people don't get it that a large number of people have it and are asymptomatic, (its not like the regular flu where everyone has symptoms) yet they are carriers of the virus and spreaders of it. That is how the problem got worse in Europe and America in congested areas where restrictions were relaxed for too long. This is why the 2 metres rule (6 feet) is a safety rule, just like not crossing a red traffic light.

LyrArc Article Gist
The US president DJT says he is on both sides of the issue. He will never forget the farmers who supported him and he wants them to do well knowing their need for good agricultural workers. As the move to return illegal migrants proceeds under ICE DJT is considering a way to allow the farmers to keep the workers they know and be responsible for them. Agriculture Secretary Brook Rollins has told the president the importance of having the agricultural workforce for farmers in the US.

Even in the similar program under president Eisenhower in 1954 called Operation Wetback,  on which the current program is modeled, there was an effort to keep the agricultural workers on farms for essential agricultural activity. For a long time the Bracero program with Mexico was designed to do this with legal pathways to work in the US in the 1950's.

LyrArc Article Gist
Interracial marraiges are increasing since the Supreme Court made antimiscegenation laws unconstituional in 1967. According to a new report by the Pew Research Center- based on historical data and Census Bureau information of the annual American Community Survey- 15% of all new marraiges in 2010 were between people of different race, ethnicity or color. This is double what it was in 1980. Of the total people married in 2010, 9% of whites, 17% of blacks, 26% of Hispanics and 28% of Asians were married outside of the ethnic and racial group. Interracial marraiges were more common in western states and in the northeastern U.S. compared to the southern and midwestern states. In the western states 22% of all marraiges were between people of different ethnic or racial groups or color. College educated people under 30 were the most open to interracial marraige.

LyrArc Article Gist
The January 6 hearings on the riot at the Capitol in Washington DC led to a subpoena for testimony by Steve Bannon which he rejected- leading to the contempt of Congress sentence.

LyrArc Article Gist
Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro is lit up in the national colors. Brazil declares 3 days of national mourning. A look at the extraordinary soccer career of Pele for Brazil.

LyrArc Article Gist
Australia seeks to reduce migration to pre-pandemic levels by putting a cap on foreign students. The cap is set at 270,000 for 2025. Each college or university will be given a restriction.

LyrArc Article Gist
Germany faces the unique challenge of phasing out coal and nuclear energy at the same time. Germany's response to the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan was for Chancellor Merkel to announce that all plants would be closed over the next decade. By the end of 2022 all 17 nuclear energy facilities will be shut down.

LyrArc Article Gist
The connections between president Zuma and the Gupta family with its controlling interests in the media, mining and other industries, are widely seen as a problem for the president. The move to invest in nuclear plants by the Zuma administration was opposed by the finance minister leading to his resignation. Here DW.com looks at the Gupta family- businessmen from Uttar Pradesh, India who arrived in the 1990's and started with a small computer business which expanded into mining and media. The connections have affected the credibility of the Zuma administration, leading to the decision by the president not to run again for election. A no confidence motion this time under secret ballot is being passed for the second time in parliament in August 2017.

LyrArc Article Gist
A potato farmer in the Himalyan foothills is able to buy his first refrigerator using his Jio smartphone, even though he lives in a remote part of  India with no paved roads or indoor plumbing. Jio is the company founded by Reliance Industries head Mukesh Ambani, that is changing the way India shops and how it accesses the internet. Jio brings 4G technology to India and dramatically brings down data prices. To do this Reliance used its past success in executing big projects. It was designed to be a network that reached 18,000 cities and towns, and 200,000 villages, some lacking electricity, requiring 200,000 cell towers and 150,000 miles of high tech fiber optic cable. The project is now essentially completed, according to the company. This may be the biggest one it has tackled. Starting in polyester yarn and textile business, and in oil refineries, the company sought to diversify into digital platforms to compete with the likes of Google and Netflix. Ambani sees Jio not as a telecom business but as a digital platform and plans to use it to sell advertising, sell content, and financial services, also selling high speed broadband services. Ambani's project was designed to give India the opportunity to leapfrog into 4G and high speed internet and do this along with expanding the access through lower prices in the market to reach millions of people in remote regions of India including rural areas. Low cost access to data helps level the playing field between the rich and the poor. There are about 390 million internet users in India, penetration of 28%. This is now changing rapidly as prices drop - the potato farmer who bought his first fridge did this on his phone, connecting online with Jio which built a tower nearby that beamed nearly unlimited 4G data for about $2.10 a month. Jio has now signed up 215 million subscribers with its low cost service. Bharti Airtel and Vodafone are larger competitors but it is Jio that has revolutionized the market in India, and which now enables companies like Amazon to use the new 4G services to build its retail online business.   ...